Barcelona council rises offer to buy community center under threat of eviction to €9.7 million

The Barcelona city council has asked courts to put on hold the eviction of the Gimnàs Social Sant Pau community center, originally planned for Friday, while landlords study a €9.7 million offer to purchase the building.

As a result, on Thursday early afternoon, a local Barcelona court met the local administration's request and suspended the eviction in order to grant more time for negotiation. The judge did not set an alternative date. 

The Gimnàs Social Sant Pau cooperative is a low-budget gym that also provides the city's most vulnerable with a place to eat and shower in addition to a clean change of clothes. It is located in the Raval neighborhood, a historically low-income but increasingly gentrified area in the heart of the city.

Over 2,500 mainly homeless people have benefited from Gimnàs Social Sant Pau's services throughout the pandemic in the form of 55,000 showers and 40,000 meals. "Shutting down could be a lethal psychological blow for them," warns Santi González, one of the gym's workers.